Mayor of Ashland, Kentucky

Mayor of The City of Ashland, Kentucky
Incumbent Tom Kelley
Term length	4 years
Formation	19 century

The Mayor of the City of Ashland, Kentucky is elected for a four year term and is not term limited. The mayor presides over City Commission meetings, is a voting member of the City Commission and represents the city at major functions. The current mayor is Tom Kelley. Kelley is a former member of the Ashland Police Department, where he retired as Chief of Police.

The City of Ashland operates under a City Manager form of Government. Under this form of government the people of Ashland elect a Mayor and four Commissioners, who together, make up the Board of Commissioners, which possesses the legislative and executive powers of the city. The Mayor, as a member of the Board, presides over all meetings, calls special meetings, and executes all bonds, notes, contracts, and written obligations authorized by the board.

The Mayor and four commissioners are elected by the citizens to act as their representatives in all legislative matters. Their primary duties are to enact ordinances and make polices that are for the ultimate good of the community as a whole. The mayor is elected for a four-year term and the Commissioners are elected for two-year terms. In cities of the second class with the City Manager form of government non-partisan elections are mandatory.^[1]

List of Mayors

Office Term Number	Name	Starting year of Office	Ending year of Office	Notes
1	Henry Bishop Brodess	1876	1881	Member of Republican National Convention;[2] Ashland Home Guard; 14th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry
2	John Means	1881	1882	Vice-president of Ashland National Bank; president of Eastern Division of Lexington & Big Sandy Railroad Company; organized Ashland Coal Company
3	William Wirt Culbertson	1882	1883	U. S. Representative from Kentucky
4	W. H. H. Eba	1883	1883	Incorporated Kentucky Power Company
5	Thomas Russell	1883	1886	Street commissioner of Ashland
6	W. W. Patterson	1886	1889
7	Patrick Moriarty, Jr.	1889	1889	Park Commissionaire; member of Commercial Club of Ashland; city commissioner; owned Moriarty's, a furniture store
8	David A. Fisher	1889	1892	Operated sawmill and lumberyard; contractor and house-builder; operated livery stable and dime store; oversaw poor house; railroad conductor
9	J. C. Whitten	1892	1894	Chief of Police
10	Tom S. Newman	1894	1897	Operated Tom Newman's clothing store
11	William A. Ginn	1897	1906	Member of Commercial Club of Ashland; Park Convention
12	J. O. Matthewson	1906	1910	Member of Commercial Club of Ashland
13	Dr. A. H. Moore	1910	1913
14	J. M. McCleary	1913	1913
15	William A. Ginn	1913	1914	Member of Commercial Club of Ashland; Park Convention
16	Dr. William Monroe Salisbury	1914	1917	"Father of road-paving"
17	H. R. Dysard	1917	1921	Ashland Judge; lawyer; Kentucky Bar Examiner[3]
18	Dr. William Monroe Salisbury	1921	1925	"Father of road-paving"
19	W. M. Nicholson	1925	1926	Plumber[4]
20	William B. Whitt	1926	1926	Senator
21	Ernest E. Ramey	1926	1927
22	Charles F. Weaver	1927	1928	Operated Ashland Foundry & Machine Works
23	W. C. Frailie	1928	1932	Owned home pharmacy
24	Edgar Browne Hager	1932	1935	Kentucky Bar Examiner[5]
25	William C. Simpson	1936	1940	Named Ashland Flood Relief Committee
26	Henry D. Shanklin	1940	1943	Cashier at Second National Bank
27	Clyde Roland Levi	1944	1947	Kentucky Bar Examiner[6]
28	William C. Simpson	1948	1951	Named Ashland Flood Relief Committee
29	David Aronberg	1952	1955	Merchant; real-estate agent; WWII veteran[7]
30	Wilburn Caskey	1956	1959
31	David Aronberg	1960	1964[8]
32	Wilburn Caskey	1964	1968[9]
33	Charles H. Gartrell	1968	1972[10]

Notes and references

1. ^ City of Ashland Official Website
2. ^ The Political Graveyard – Brodess
3. ^ Kentucky State Bar Association Roll of Members
4. ^ Domestic engineering and the journal of mechanical contracting, Volume 49
5. ^ A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians Volume III by E. Polk Johnson
6. ^ Proceedings of the Twenty-first Annual Meeting of the Kentucky State Bar Association
7. ^ The Political Graveyard – Aronberg
8. ^ The public papers of Governor Lawrence W. Wetherby, 1950-1955 by Lawrence Winchester Wetherby
9. ^ The exception; the story of Ashland Oil & Refining Company (1968)
10. ^ The Kentucky encyclopedia (1992)